Name: Blyth Academy Online
Address: 160 Avenue Road, , Toronto, Toronto
Rating: 4.38

“Blyth Academy Online is well structured and the online platform is pretty easy to work with. The only thing I could say is that you are pretty much left alone. You have to learn everything by yourself, and when you don't understand, the teachers send you more videos or exercises about the notions, that you have to do by yourself.”

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Posted 5 months ago

“My kids love it, access to the portal is fast and effective for my distant learning children. However, there was an incidence early this year the portal access wasn't granted on time. It waa bit frustrated for my kid to submit her assignment. Few of the students had to use other student's login to access the portal.”

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Posted 5 months ago

“Very poor feedback, some teachers don't reply to emails for days. In the student's office there is no communication with technical support. My email to Susan Kelly went unanswered.”

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Posted 5 months ago

“Content was fine but the did not report marks in a timely manner and had to follow up a few times.”

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Posted 5 months ago

“A good way to get missing credits virtually Response times from teachers and punctuality of marking are not great”

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Posted 5 months ago

“Blyth has been my son’s first traditional school experience. He entered at grade 10. The majority of his classes have been very good but there has been a lot of confusion in some. He thoroughly enjoyed Gr 10 English and Civics, and is currently enjoying Gr 11 English and American History. Partway through his Gr 9/10 business class there was a change in teachers. Neither the first or second teacher could explain one of the assignments very well. As a parent and an educator, I encourage my children to strive to do their best but without guidance and effective communication this is difficult. On a recent History exam he answered a closed question correctly but did poorly because he didn’t elaborate. When he asked the teacher, he received the answer that more was expected of a grade 11 student. I agree, but still feel the question should have said, ‘explain your reasoning’. How is he supposed to know what the teacher wants if they don’t tell him? Please keep in mind that not all students come with a traditional school background. I also wondered why Macbeth was being studied in both Gr 10 and Gr 11 English. I certainly didn’t expect to pay for my son to study the same Shakespearean play twice. Math is another issue all on it’s own. He did very well prior to Blyth but even with the help of a tutor he struggled to complete Blyth’s grade 10 math. These experiences have not deterred him from wanting to take Blyth courses, and even after all our struggles he says he would give Blyth a 4* rating. We know that there is no perfect school out there and for now are choosing to stay with Blyth. Thank you for taking the time to read my review.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“It was ok. My son would have preferred videos by one consistent teacher vs. a compilation of YouTube videos.. teacher did answer questions in a timely manner. Clearer Explanation of test procedures would be helpful prior to first test.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“I found the teachers and administrators very accessible and extremely helpful. However, I found the substance of the courses I took to be lacking and felt I had to teach myself a significant portion of the content. Most of the time it worked out well but this made a course like math very difficult. I also found the amount of work to be greater than what I have had to do at in person schools.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Administration and connection with the teaching staff isn’t ideal in the online setting. Hard to know where to go for questions.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“The breadth and structure of the courses available on Blyth Academy Online is very good, and the instructors are very responsive. In my opinion, what is missing to get a 5/5 rating is more proactive periodic teacher check-ins, and a more automated way for students to know when they are falling behind the pace they need to maintain to hit their completion timeline. If your child is highly self-motivated and organized then I think it's a great platform, but for those that have kids who need more guidance, and communication about deadlines, a lot of parental oversight is required.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“I find that the administrative staff at Blyth are incredibly helpful and quick to respond to all my requests for support or information. I feel the courses are very, very text heavy and take much longer than any other online courses. This is an area in which I think Blyth can improve. I also feel that the module content should be carefully reviewed against the assessment pieces, as there is often a disconnect (either the assessment pieces contain information not in the modules, or they contain questions which are much more difficult than the examples explored in class).”

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Posted 3 years ago

“Lessons and teachers have been good overall, but volume of work is way too much.”

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Posted 3 years ago

Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. Blyth Academy Online is a Ministry inspected Ontario high school with credit granting authority, therefore, each course must be at least 110 hours long, much like any high school course completed in a regular offline school. We’re glad that you enjoyed the quality of our teachers and hope that you consider Blyth Academy Online in the future.

Posted 3 years ago

“This is a very helpful education option both my kids have enjoyed with 5 courses so far. The principal is helpful and a good problem solver. Our family likes that we can take the courses as we need them e.g. doing them as "reach ahead" in grade 8 for grade 9 and doing a BOA as an overload to our kids usual Catholic School's 8 credits/year. We also like the many courses that are offered. If there is a gap in learning such as in the summer or during COVID it was great that our children could use BAO as "summer school." Non-synchronous self-directed learning is difficult. Giving the kids the 365 days but no real "to do lists" with timed learning expectations just makes both of our kids (and the two other families we referred) procrastinate. Our daughter (due to COVID) has to do 2 semester of online university already and there it is much more clear what the kids have to do when. The teachers post a "to-do Check list" and the lectures are given by the educator who makes the test questions. But even online it can be done as a real teacher giving the lesson and taping it. The Grade 10 math class is really difficult to learn from the Khan Academy videos. I tried to express my concerns with the Department head of the Math Department that the kids have not learned what they are asked in the marked tests but have not been able to make the point that I might have to try to switch from BAO to Blyth Night School or Blyth Orbit to have a teacher TEACH the material. Our family finds a short video (often just a not very related Kahn Academy clip) not instructional enough for an academic level course. Our son admitted he felt unprepared to perform at his usual level (honour roll student) in the midterm and politely asked for more study material. He was told to "do the lesson/quizzes' AGAIN without further educational resources, exam reviews or practice questions provided. The Department head had said our son could try himself to find some questions (in that big Nelson book). But nobody seems to see the problem here. The CURRICULUM is not sufficiently instructed for what is aske din the tests (likely not the same teacher teaching who made the questions?). Disappointingly, a 70% was given for that Midterm. We would have clearly preferred he would have given more educational resources before the test (he has the email to show he asked for more preparation opportunities). The more we ask for help and admit the course is a struggle the worse the "judged" marks get. It is a struggle. It is so different with Western University online. The lecturer just explains the lesson (e.g. Krebs Cycle which is also not easy) in his own words in a 30-minute video where he/she just talks to powerpoint slights. Those slides are available and are good preparations for the tests. The test then asks what was taught. Some BAO courses do not teach the difficult things in detail but ask the difficult things in detail. Our son had not issues with the Geography course where it is possible to lookup gaps but in math it has to be taught comprehensively. It would be nice if children have the interest to do extra work to give them more educational materials and study materials, especially exam reviews. Even just one IN PERSON lesson taped on video that reviews what is going to be on the midterm would help. The new BrightSpace expects the kids to video their answers and to explain math with words - but the course is not taught by a teacher using her/his own words to explain the math. Even if this is not a synchronous course - there should be video-taped lessons uses (not Kahn academy). The math behind the grading is also a problem. If and important test (like the midterm) has only 3 questions (and one question the students makes a mistake, e.g. being nervous being on camera - like our chid did) then you can already not do better than 75% any more. Again, the university (UWO) uses 40 questions in a Midterm. Mathematically, you should not create a %grade that goes into the final average out of 3 questions. If this low number is allowed then a test with 2 questions would result in 50% grade for just struggling with one question. This practice of NOT ENOUGH questions per test is artificially lowering the achievement in % potential of the students. Example: Our child (despite his struggles with this course) was at 90% before the Midterm - out of nervousness about the unfamiliar "in person" video format for the Midterm overlooked that he was not to calculate one side but the other side of a question that at a triangle. So ONE mistake but because he only had 3 questions total got a Midterm in the 70s that pushed his overall average under 90 - for one question wrong. It is helpful when deciding to buy a course to be able to preview the marked items but there should be also the information about how many questions will be on each marked multiples choice test - low numbers should not be allowed because one mistake affects the %grade too much. This was a problem in Grade 12 Biology as well. The student has to be able to show and bring into his average his knowledge in questions he is able to answer correctly as well.”

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Posted 3 years ago


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Blyth Academy Online Reviews